ARGUMENT  DEFINITION  

An  argument  is  a  connected  series  of  statements  or  propositions  intended  to  provide  support,  justification  or  evidence  for  the  truth  of  another  statement  or  proposition.    

Arguments  consist  of  one  or  more  premises  and  a  conclusion.  

Premises  (a.k.a  evidence/reasons)  +  Conclusion  (a.k.a.  claim)  =  Argument  

Premises  are  those  statements  that  are  taken  to  provide  the  support  or  evidence;  the  conclusion  is  that  which  the  premises  allegedly  support.  

þ  The  conclusion  is  a  statement  the  author  wants  you  to  believe.      þ  Conclusions  are  ideas  that  require  evidence  to  support  them.      þ  Conclusions  are  derived  from  reasoning.      þ  The  GRE  will  expect  you  to  draw  a  conclusion  from  the  information    

communicated.        The  conclusion  will  not  be:    •  Examples  •  Statistics  •  Definitions  •  Background  Information  •  Evidence    Other  conclusion  indicator  words:  but,  proves  that,  consequently,  shows  that,  hence,  so,  indicates  that,  suggests  that,  in  fact,  in  short,  it  follows  that,  therefore,  the  most  obvious  explanation,  thus,  the  point  I’m  trying  to  make  is,  it  is  highly  probable  that,  the  truth  of  the  matter  is,  it  should  be  clear  that,  points  to  the  conclusion  that,  we  may  deduce  that,  etc.    Note:  When  someone  claims  something  is  true  or  ought  to  be  done  and  provides  no  statements  to  support  the  claim,  that  claim  is  not  a  conclusion  because  no  one  has  offered  any  basis  for  belief;  it’s  an  opinion  instead.        

Example  #1:  Supreme  Court  Justice  Potter  Stewart  once  quipped  that  though  he  couldn't  define  pornography,  he  knew  it  when  he  saw  it.    “Will  Internet  filtering  software  ever  have  it  that  easy?    Not  anytime  soon,  and  not  without  a  lot  of  human  intervention.    The  Internet  is  too  vast  and  diverse,  and  the  applications  too  indiscriminate  in  their  quest  for  the  obscene  and  the  pornographic.”        

Issue:  Will  Internet  filtering  software  ever  have  it  that  easy?    Conclusion:  Not  anytime  soon,  and  not  without  a  lot  of  human  intervention.    Reasons:  The  Internet  is  too  vast  and  diverse,  and  the  applications  too  indiscriminate  in  their  quest  for  the  obscene  and  the  pornographic.    

Example  #2:  For  a  better  college  learning  environment,  all  classes  should  begin  in  the  afternoon.    Most  students  try  to  schedule  afternoon  or  evening  classes  anyway;  you  rarely  hear  of  a  student  who  is  upset  at  being  closed  out  of  the  8  a.m.  section  of  a  class.    Also,  experts  say  that  students  who  are  alert  learn  more  and  learn  more  quickly.    For  example,  at  Southern  

State  University,  one  group  of  students  took  an  8  a.m.  psychology  course  from  Dr.  Miller  while  another  group  took  the  same  course  from  Dr.  Miller  at  2  p.m.    The  students  in  the  afternoon  class  had  slightly  higher  averages  than  those  in  the  morning  class.    Changing  the  starting  time  for  classes  at  universities  to  afternoon  will  help  students.    Issue:  Should  starting  times  for  classes  be  changed  to  help  students  learn?    Conclusion:  All  classes  should  begin  in  the  afternoon.  

Example  #3:  Corporate  managers  are  always  interested  in  techniques  for  increasing  the  productivity  of  their  workers.    One  interesting  suggestion  made  by  productivity  consultants  is  to  pipe  music  into  the  work  area.    Several  recent  studies  have  explored  the  extent  to  which  different  types  of  music  affect  workers  output.    The  primary  hypothesis  examined  in  the  studies  was  that  soft-­‐rock  music  would  prove  the  greatest  aid  to  productivity.    The  research  has  found  almost  universally  that  country  and    

western  music  is  the  greatest  inducement  to  efficiency.    Therefore,  corporate  officials  should  seriously  consider  playing  country  and  western  music  as  a  stimulus  to  worker  productivity.    Issue:  Should  music  be  played  to  improve  worker  productivity?    Conclusion:  Play  country  western  music  to  improve  productivity.    Reason:  Studies  indicate  that  country/western  music  promotes  worker  efficiency.    INFERENCES  &  ASSUMPTIONS    Inferences    �  An  intellectual  act  by  which  one  concludes  that  something  is  true  in  light  of  something  else’s  being  true,  or  seeming  to  be  true.    �  It’s  a  conclusion  about  the  unknown  based  on  the  known.      �  Inferences  can  be  accurate  or  inaccurate,  logical  or  illogical,  justified  or  unjustified.    

     

       

     

   Assumptions    �  Something  we  take  for  granted  or  presuppose.      �  Usually  it  is  something  we  previously  learned  and  do  not  question.      

�  It  is  part  of  our  system  of  beliefs.      �  We  assume  our  beliefs  to  be  true  and  use  them  to  interpret  our  world.      �  If  our  belief  is  a  sound  one,  our  assumption  is  sound.      �  If  our  belief  is  not  sound,  our  assumption  is  not  sound.    Often  different  people  make  different  inferences  because  they  bring  to  situations  different  viewpoints.    They  see  the  data  differently.    To  put  it  another  way,  they  make  different  assumptions  about  what  they  see.    For  example,  two  people  see  a  man  lying  in  a  gutter.      �  One  might  infer,  “There’s  a  drunken  bum.”    �  The  other  might  infer,  “There’s  a  man  in  need  of  help.”      

   These  inferences  are  based  on  different  assumptions  about  the  conditions  under  which  people  end  up  in  gutters.    Moreover,  these  assumptions  are  connected  to  each  person’s  viewpoint  about  people.      �  The  first  person  assumes,  “Only  drunks  are  to  be  found  in  gutters.”    �  The  second  person  assumes,  “People  lying  in  the  gutter  are  in  need  of  help.”    �  The  first  person  may  have  developed  the  point  of  view  that  people  are  fundamentally  responsible  for  what  happens  to  them  and  ought  to  be  able  to  care  for  themselves.      �  The  second  may  have  developed  the  point  of  view  that  the  problems  people  have  are  often  caused  by  forces  and  events  beyond  their  control.        The  reasoning  of  these  two  people,  in  terms  of  their  inferences  and  assumptions,  could  be  characterized  in  the  following  way:  

 Situation:  A  man  is  lying  in  the  gutter.  Inference:  That  man’s  a  bum.  Assumption:  Only  bums  lie  in  gutters.  

Situation:  A  man  is  lying  in  the  gutter.  Inference:  That  man  is  in  need  of  help.  Assumption:  Anyone  lying  in  the  gutter  is  in  need  of  help.  

 GMAT  LOGICAL  FALLACIES/ERRORS  OF  ARGUMENT  

    Term   Definition   Example(s)  

1   False  Cause/Causation  Fallacy                  

Arguing  that  because  Event  B  occurred  after  Event  A,  Event  A  caused  Event  B  

⦁  “There  was  an  increase  of  births  during  the  full  moon.  Therefore,  full  moons  cause  birth  rates  to  rise.”  ⦁  “I  drank  a  ‘Coldbuster’  Jamba  Juice  and  three  days  later  my  cold  disappeared!”  

 2   Generalization/  

Stereotyping  Conclusion  is  unjustified  due  to  insufficient/biased  evidence  

⦁  “Professor  Brugger  is  a  hard  grader  because  he  gave  my  roommate  a  D-­‐  last  year.”  ⦁  “The  majority  of  people  in  the  United  States  die  in  hospitals,  so  stay  out  of  them.”  ⦁  “I  got  bitten  by  a  bunny  once.    I  think  they  should  all  be  slaughtered.    What  biological  purpose  do  they  serve?”  

 3   False  Analogy/Faulty  

Comparison              Basing  an  argument  on  a  poor  comparison  of  two  things,  ideas,  events  or  situations;  comparing  “apples  and  oranges”  

⦁  “Teaching  kids  about  sex  education  is  like  letting  them  loose  in  a  candy  store.”  ⦁  “The  American  Indian  had  to  make  way  for  Western  civilization;  after  all,  you  can't  make  an  omelette  without  breaking  a  few  eggs.”  ⦁  “Since  the  mind  is  essentially  a  wet  computer,  our  task  is  to  figure  out  how  we  can  best  program  it!”  

 4   False  Dilemma/Either-­‐

Or  Fallacy  An  oversimplification  that  reduces  alternatives  to  only  two  choices  when  more  may  actually  exist  

⦁  “Either  we  ban  boxing  or  hundreds  of  young  men  will  be  senselessly  killed.”  ⦁  “Patients  either  get  better  or  they  don’t.”  ⦁  “America:  Love  it  or  leave  it.”  

 5   Begging  the  Question   Loading  the  conclusion  in  the  claim;  

assuming  that  something  is  true  before  it’s  proven  

⦁  “The  antiwar  demonstrators  of  the  1970s  should  be  remembered  as  the  cowards  that  they  were.”  ⦁  “Your  arguments  against  Freud  are  due  to  your  unresolved  unconscious  conflicts.”  

 6   Ambiguity/Equivocation   Two  types:  the  word  or  phrase  may  be  

ambiguous,  in  which  case  it  has  more  than  one  distinct  meaning  OR  the  word  or  phrase  may  be  vague,  in  which  case  it  has  no  distinct  meaning    

⦁  “President  Clinton  should’ve  been  impeached  only  if  he  had  improper  relations  with  Monica  Lewinsky.  He  didn’t  have  relations  with  Lewinsky.    Therefore,  he  shouldn’t  have  been  impeached.”    ⦁  “Marriage  is  a  subject  of  great  gravity,  so  getting  married  will  make  us  gain  weight.”